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COMMENTARY
It may be your dad inside this Easter Bunny costume
AROUND
TOWN
JOE EARLE
Todd
Koetje raced
from the
backyard to
breathlessly
announce a
special guest’s
arrival.
“Hey,
guys,” he
yelled to 50
or so people
— about half
adults, half
kids — gath
ered for their
neighbor
hood Easter party at Ray and Nicole
Johnson’s house. “I just saw the Easter
Bunny. The Easter Bunny is here.”
Moments later, the big rabbit himself
hopped into view. Woodsong Court’s
own Easter Bunny had returned. He
paid his annual visit to the Dunwoody
cul-de-sac on the Saturday before the
holiday as the neighborhood kids were
hunting Easter eggs, and moms and
dads and a few grandparents gathered
for brunch.
This bunny stood at least six feet tall,
had floppy ears, was covered head-to-
toe in fluffy white fur, wore a bright
ly colored vest and a rubbery nose, and
looked surprisingly like Koetje’s neigh
bor Jess Brown in a bunny suit.
Woodsong Court’s Easter Bun
ny has appeared at the neighborhood’s
holiday party every year since 2008. A
Woodsong dad has worn the big bun
ny suit each year. There’s a tradition to
determine which dad will appear as the
bunny: whoever has the last-place team
in the neighborhood fantasy football
league wins the honor, or perhaps dis
honor. Except this year, when the last-
place finisher had a conflict, so Brown
stepped in to fill the bunny gap.
As he hopped into the
yard, everyone gathered
around to welcome him.
Everyone, that is, except
Brown’s own kids. They
bolted. “My kids, it’s like
their minds are blown,”
Brown, a 32-year-old
who usually handles fi
nancial matters for a con
tracting and consulting
company, said later. “The
only two scared kids were
mine.”
It turns out that Eas
ter Bunnies get used to a
little rejection. The year
Koetje wore the suit, his
kids ran away at the sight
of him. His description
of his turn as the big bun
ny: “It’s great. You get a
bunch of middle-aged
kids running around with
Whiffle ball bats trying
to hit you. It’s hot and
it’s sweaty, and your kids
don’t recognize you and
start to cry, which is OK
because you don’t want them to remem
ber you did it.”
But everybody else remembers who
wore the suit. This is how holiday mem
ories are made.
Woodsong Court and nearby Wood
song Trail, residents say, make up a little
island surrounded by larger neighbor
hoods. Their island is a place where ev
erybody knows everybody. Residents get
together regularly. They swap ornaments
at Christmas and hold a big Halloween
party. They have a website to trade info.
“This is a great neighborhood,” April
Williams said.
They look out for one another. Nehal
and Samantha Desai said their young-
born just 19 days after they
PHIL MOSIER
Ray and Nicole Johnson, residents on Woodsong Court in Dunwoody, held
the neighborhood’s annual Easter party at their home on March 30.
moved in and neighbors kept drop
ping by night after night to wish them
well and deliver covered dishes. “People
kept bringing us food,” Desai said with
a smile.
er son was
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They don’t have a homeowners associ
ation to hold them together — no pool or
tennis facilities to operate — so they’ve in
vented their own community organiza-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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www.ReporterNewspapers.net | APRIL5 — APRIL 18,2013 | 9
